Raiders head coach Easton revealed he was concerned heading into the Spring Cup

The Romford-based outfit picked up three victories in the 12-game mini series with eventual competition winners Sheffield Steeldogs the only side they didn’t manage to beat.

“I’m not going to lie, going into the Spring Cup I was very concerned how it could pan out for us, mainly knowing the kind of players Sheffield and Swindon had in November (during the first Streaming Series with MK Lightning),” Easton admitted.

“It was going to be a tough task. Every player that was in the UK wanted to play, which was great, and there is no doubt that it would be a valuable experience for us to play against the Elite League players that had been signed up.

“We helped fill our team with Zach Sullivan, Glenn Billing, Ed Knaggs, Juraj Huska, while it was a first taste of senior hockey for both Ben Solder and Harry Gulliver who all helped us to be competitive in the higher level of competition we were facing.

“The nice thing for me was I felt every game we competed, one bad period here or there cost us ultimately, but there was no game we walked away from and said we was out of our depth.

Raiders celebrate a goal away to Bees IHC in the NIHL Spring Cup (Image: John Scott)

“We competed, we made sure every team knew they were in a game and we grew as the competition went on.”

Easton was also keen to praise his squad for stepping up to the challenge after having a year off from action due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and having very little time to prepare for the Spring Cup games.

“For an athlete it is extremely hard for anyone to have a year off and jump into that competition with very little preparation and my hat goes off to the team for allowing the Raiders to compete in the season that was off the cards for many,” he added.

Raiders will now have to wait until the 2021/22 season to return to the ice and the club will begin preparing in the coming weeks.